The Best Way To Start Your One-Person Business.

Don't. Be. Me.

In the last ten years, I’ve started seven businesses. Most of them failed.

Don’t. Be. Me. (Did you know I considered naming my newsletter Don’t. Be. Me?)

Anyhow. Seven businesses. Phew. That’s a lot of trial and error.

To help you avoid that, let me tell you the three ways to make money online and a little bit about each. This will help you get some perspective.

#1: Work for clients

You offer services to clients. This features an easy, no-cost entry but is hard to scale.

#2: Work for customers

You sell products, physical or digital. This requires some investment—time, money, or equipment—to create or purchase the products you will sell.

#3: Work for audiences

This is relatively new and very exciting. You can now get paid to create content as long as you can attract massive audiences. You can do that on various platforms, including YouTube, Medium, Substack, and even IG and Facebook, which started paying their content creators.

Now, these aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they stack very well to help you build a small empire.

But if you’re just starting, it’s good to know where to start.

So I’ll tell you. Start with #3. Even if you want to work with clients eventually, or if you’re already selling to customers, circle back and devote as much time & energy as possible to #3.

Amassing an audience means building a solid foundation for your business, which translates to long-term security and growth.

I’ll tell you more about why & how to do #3 later this week.

Looking forward to seeing your one-person business empire,

Maya